Mdot traffic count data drivers#

“I think we have to be more aggressive now. “I’m concerned that we are in this opportunity zone and I don’t want it to slip away,” she said. Carol Krimm (D-Frederick) suggested the immediate creation of a “blue ribbon commission” to take advantage of the current spike in telework. “The question is what if we could convince just 5% or 10% - or even 2% - of people to continue working from home, or otherwise avoiding driving during the peak period, what would the benefits of that be in the state of Maryland?”ĭel. While planners and policymakers cannot assume that the trend is permanent, Zhang cautioned, they should be actively looking for ways to keep as many workers off the roads at peak times as possible. Some prominent companies have recently said they will give up their offices and make telework permanent. Office layouts are being reworked to provide more space between desks and building engineers are struggling to reduce crowding in elevators, shared spaces and stairwells. Many employers have already indicated it will be many more months - at a minimum - before they bring workers back to the workplace. Since the pandemic, motorists on almost all Maryland highways have been able to travel at or near posted speeds even at the most congested periods of the day, the institute found. “A 15% reduction in traffic volume observed in July 2020 was able to eliminate almost all traffic bottlenecks in the region,” he added.Ī comparison of vehicle speeds between last year and this year showed dramatic changes as well. “In April were down by more than 50% and now we’re coming back up to 80% or 85%, but still we don’t see a lot of traffic jams,” he said.

Mdot traffic count data drivers#

That would mean getting 5,700 drivers who would normally take Interstate 270 at the height of the traditional commute to telework or travel off-peak, institute Director Lei Zhang told the panel. The panel is looking at how telework - which has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels since the coronavirus outbreak began - can be sustained, to reduce fuel use, time spent in traffic, and pollution.Ĭomparing 2019 traffic volume with this year’s data, MTI researchers concluded that “just a 5% reduction in travel demand could lead to 32%-58% reduction in traffic congestion on major freeways.” The conclusions were presented to a legislative subcommittee on Thursday. The institute’s analysis is drawn from a voluminous cache of cell phone data, which researchers insist is stripped of individual origin and destination information to preserve anonymity. The findings are certain to delight critics of the Hogan administration’s plan to widen two Washington, D.C., region interstate highways using a controversial funding system. Even though commuting volumes have rebounded almost entirely from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic congestion has not returned, Maryland’s leading transportation analysts have concluded.Īs a result, researchers at the Maryland Transportation Institute now believe, the state can achieve significant improvements in commute times by getting a relatively small percentage of people to work from home on a long-term basis.